ABSTRACT
What determines the intensity of motivation when people are personally involved in a performance setting? Do people automatically mobilize maximal effort when their achievements have direct implications for their self-esteem, self-definition, or personal interests? Intuitively, this appears to be reasonable, because performing well is highly important under such conditions. On the other hand, there is replicated evidence that effort mobilization follows a conservation principle, at least when people pursue material goals, such as money or other valuable goods (Wright, 1996). Accordingly, people do not mobilize more effort than necessary in the goal pursuit process. Rather, effort is mobilized proportionally to the extent of demand, as was posited in the early "difficulty law of motivation" (Ach, 1935; Hillgruber, 1912).
